This invention relates to closures for containers, more particularly to closures that produce unique visual effects when combined with standard containers for personal care products.
A variety of dispensing packages and containers have been developed for personal care products such as shampoos, lotions, etc., as well as for other materials. It is highly desirable that these dispensing containers be not only functional, but also have an aesthetic and distinctive appearance to attract the purchaser""s eye and identify the product.
Numerous examples of containers and dispensing closures that are both functional and visually distinctive are found in the prior art. The examples presented herein are representative of such articles, and are relevant to the disclosure of the present invention.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 374,625 to Flurer et al. discloses a combined container and cap for a hair care product. The bottle has a distinctive narrow oval shape that is continued by the pushbutton-style cap. The cap has a constant oval cross-section from the base of its skirt to its top, and a ring-shaped ornament around its base where the base meets the shoulder of the bottle. U.S. Design Pat. No. 426,158, also to Flurer et al., presents a more detailed disclosure of the cap.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 405,693 to Bretz et al. presents a bottle closure with a circular skirt and a non-circular top. The top appears as an oval when viewed from above. The cross-sectional shape changes suddenly from round to oval rather than gradually merging from one shape to the other.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,968 to Dark discloses a closure in FIGS. 12 and 13 in which the skirt has a circular cross-section and the top has a non-circular cross-section that is approximately oval in shape. Again, the closure does not exhibit a smooth transition from the base of the skirt to the top portion thereof.
U.S. Design Pat No. 363,222 to Lay discloses a dispensing container with a pushbutton dispensing mechanism where the skirt and top each have oval faces of slightly different shape. As a result, when viewed from the side, the closure has a vertical wall adjacent to the outlet port of the dispenser and a wall that is sloped slightly off vertical adjacent to the button end of the dispenser.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 316,221 to Dombroski discloses a design for an oval collapsible tube and a cap therefor. The sleeve of the tube has an oval head and, therefore, an oval cross-section throughout its length, and the cap has an oval face of substantially the same shape and cross-sectional area as the oval head of the tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,200 to Tripp presents a dispensing closure having a circular skirt and an oval top. The cross-section expands continuously from the skirt to the top so that the cross-sectional area of the oval top is substantially larger than the area described by the skirt.
A variety of dispensing mechanisms are also known in the art. A typical pushbutton-type dispensing closure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,501 to Ostrowsky. In general, a pushbutton-type closure is characterized by an actuator that rotates about a pair of pivots secured within the body of the closure. An effluent duct within the actuator is fluidly connected to the interior of the container when the closure is in its open position. When the actuator is in its closed position, the effluent duct is concealed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,561 to Gross discloses a flip-top closure similar to a generic closure used in the personal care products industry. The body of the closure comprises a checkboard that is perforated to provide a fluid connection between the interior of the container and the outside of the closure. A lid is connected to the skirt of the closure by means of a hinge, and a plug on the underside of the lid is positioned to block the opening when the lid is in its closed position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,928 to Braun discloses a variation of the flip-top cap where the lid is attached to the closure body by means of a pivot mechanism.
Various means of attaching a closure to a receptacle are also known in the art. Two widely used means are the threaded screw-on connection, exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,928 and the snap-on fitting, exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,561, which locks the closure in position on the receptacle. A variation of the snap-on fitting, the bayonet fitting, also locks the closure onto the receptacle but is easier to remove and replace.
It is desirable to be able to manufacture a dispensing tube which has the appearance of having an oval head. Dispensing tubes typically are made with circular heads and circular closures, thereby producing packages with a generally circular appearance. In comparison, dispensing tubes with oval heads and oval closures are relatively unusual and therefore visually distinctive.
The vast majority of plastic tube manufacturing machines in use today are designed and tooled to make tubes with circular heads, rather than oval heads. The standard process of making a plastic tube involves the following steps: (1) extruding a plastic sleeve; (2) compression-molding a circular tube head onto the plastic sleeve; (3) decorating the tube; and (4) attaching a closure to the tube. Subsequently, the tube is filled with product through its open end, which is then crimped to seal the tube.
The methods of making and using a tube with an oval head are more complex and costly than the method used with circular heads. For example, the tube may be made directly using the same steps as are used with a circular head, except that an oval head is compression-molded onto the tube instead of the circular head. While feasible, this approach requires the purchase of an expensive oval-heading tool, with a cost of about $100,000 per diameter, and the purchase of specialized oval decorating mandrels instead of the more common circular mandrels. An existing production line must be changed over from round to oval in its entirety to change the type of tube being made. In another approach, the sleeve is decorated before the oval tube head is compression-molded onto the sleeve. Again, this production variation requires equipment modifications and the purchase of special tooling, and requires the production line to be changed from round to oval. There is also a risk of damaging the decoration on the sleeve due to the elevated temperatures and compression force involved in the compression-molding process. A third, and less desirable approach, is to manufacture a tube with a circular head following the process discussed herein, cut off the circular head, and weld on an oval tube head in a secondary process. This method suffers from the requirement for a secondary manufacturing step as well as from wastage of materials.
It is desirable to develop a dispensing closure that, when combined with a standard tube having a circular head, creates the distinctive visual impression of a dispensing tube having an oval head and closure. This would allow the use of commonly available equipment for tube decorating and compression-molding, and the much less complex and relatively inexpensive manufacturing process used to make circular-headed tubes. It would also be advantageous if such a closure could be adapted for use with the various dispensing mechanisms and attachment fittings that are currently known throughout the packaging industry.
A dispensing closure is provided for a container for flowable material. The shape of the closure is defined by an external skirt which has a circular cross-sectional shape at its base that merges gradually to an oval-shaped face at the top of the closure. When combined with a standard circular-headed dispensing tube, the combination of this xe2x80x9cround-to-ovalxe2x80x9d closure with the circular-headed tube appears to an ordinary observer to have oval-shaped cross sections throughout its length, rather than appearing to be a circular closure mounted to a circular tube. The use of the disclosed closure in combination with the standard circular-headed tube allows fabrication of visually distinctive packages for creams, lotions or other items typically packaged in dispensing tubes without the costs and wastage associated with fabricating oval-shaped tubes and closures.
In a preferred embodiment, the closure comprises a skirt forming the outer surface of the closure, where the skirt has a circular cross-sectional shape at its lower edge and forms an oval-shaped face at its top. The shapes of successive cross-sections of the skirt vary continuously along the length of the closure from the circular cross-sectional shape of the lower edge of the skirt to the oval-shaped face at the upper edge of the skirt. The closure further comprises a body member having means for attachment to a discharge port on the tube and a dispensing assembly interfitted with the closure.
The closure may be adapted for use with a number of different dispensing mechanisms, particularly, the push-button type and flip-top type of dispensing mechanism, or other dispensing mechanisms used in the personal care packaging industry. The means for attaching the closure body to the receptacle may be of a threaded screw-on type, a snap-on or bayonet type, or other means for attaching closures to containers that are known in the art.
The closure can be manufactured by well-known injection-molding techniques, preferably using polyolefin material, most preferably, polypropylene or a high-density polyethylene.
In another preferred embodiment, the xe2x80x9cround-to-ovalxe2x80x9d closure is combined with a standard circular-headed tube. The tube comprises a cylindrical sleeve having an open end and a closed end, said sleeve typically having the form of a right circular cylinder. The closed end of the tube is formed by a circular head molded onto the circular sleeve. The circular head also has a discharge port molded onto it. The xe2x80x9cround-to-ovalxe2x80x9d, closure is attached to the discharge port of the tube so that the long axis of the oval face is substantially parallel to the straight edge formed by the crimped end of the tube. This combination of closure and tube appears to the ordinary observer to have a continuous cross-sectional oval shape throughout its length. This creates a distinctive visual impression of an oval tube at a substantially lower cost than would be incurred to manufacture an oval-headed tube and corresponding oval cap.
The impression of an oval-headed tube can be enhanced by decorating the partially flattened faces that are formed when the open end of the tube is crimped.